Hartman: Claeys' faith in Gophers players is rewarded with victory

The Gophers defense was in the face of Northwestern quarterback Trevor Siemian repeatedly Saturday, with Ra’Shede Hageman, left, and Cameron Botticelli knocking down this pass. The Gophers broke up eight passes in all.

Not many Gophers football fans, nor media members, nor the Las Vegas sportsbooks who had Northwestern a double-digit favorite Saturday, believed the maroon and gold would beat the Wildcats for only the second time in seven meetings.

However, acting coach Tracy Claeys was one person convinced that the Gophers would upset the Wildcats, who had to play without two of their offensive stars in quarterback Kain Colter and running back Venric Mark, who were injured at Wisconsin.

Furthermore after studying the Gophers 42-13 loss to Michigan, Claeys believed the team had competed well with the Wolverines even though the score was not an indication of how close the game was.

So now the Gophers need one more win to go to their second bowl game in a row.

The Gophers scored only one offensive touchdown on a 29-yard pass from Philip Nelson to Derrick Engel, but they took advantage of the home team’s mistakes.

The turning point came when James Manuel intercepted a pass and took it 24 yards for a touchdown.

Nelson, who alternated at quarterback with Mitch Leidner, completed eight of 11 passes 112 yards and the one touchdown, while Leidner completed only one pass on three attempts for 11 yards. Rushing-wise Leidner had the edge with seven carries for 41 yards while Nelson had nine for 39. David Cobb was the big star on the ground for the Gophers with 20 carries for 106 of the team’s 176 yards.

Well, you won’t have a quarterback controversy. Because like how they operated against Northwestern, the two quarterbacks will do the same against Nebraska this week.

Vikings inconsistent

How can you account for a team going 12-4 and coming within an interception of reaching the Super Bowl, to the following season with basically the same personnel, starting 3-7, getting their coach fired and finishing 6-10?

And now that same situation that the Vikings faced in those 2009 and 2010 seasons might be happening again. They have gone from a 4-1 start to what was eventually a 10-6 playoff season a year ago to a 1-4 mark this year that has gotten the quarterback benched.

In 2009, Leslie Frazier was the defensive coordinator when Brett Favre led the Vikings to within a few plays of reaching the Super Bowl for the fifth time.

The next year, Favre decided to re-sign for one last chance at a Super Bowl. But after the team started 3-7, coach Brad Childress was fired and Frazier took over, going 3-3 the rest of the way before having his interim tag lifted in the offseason.

Frazier’s first season as full-time coach would only get worse as the team stumbled to a 3-13 record in 2011, and many thought the Vikings were in for a long rebuilding mode.

But last season Frazier surprised a lot of pundits when he took that last-place squad from the year before and earned a wild-card berth.

Now a year later, the Vikings sit at 1-4, they have removed Christian Ponder as the starting quarterback just a year after he started all 16 games in a playoff season, and their defense has gone from a solid unit in 2012 to one of the worst in the NFL statistically in 2013.

What’s amazing is that both in 2010 and 2013, the Vikings featured almost entirely the same personnel from the previous playoff seasons.